At the age of eight, he could play the piano fluently by ear, and by the time he reached his early teens he was proficient and confident enough to be appearing regularly in many of the pubs in South East London and the East End Docks.

At the age of 15, Jools was introduced to Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford; together they formed Squeeze, and shortly afterwards they were joined by Gilson Lavis (who had already played with, among others, BB King, Chuck Berry, and Max Wall) - who still drums with Jools.

Up The Junction and Cool For Cats made Squeeze's success meteoric and their popularity rapidly extended to America, where their stadium tour included performances at Madison Square Garden.